22 Pleasures Of A Long Ride On A Highway You Can’t Deny

While living a fast life in a big city has its own advantages and excitement, the pressures of work, traffic and resultant stress warrants a break once in a while to recharge your batteries. Short or long, breaks are a must. Nothing beats a road trip – solo, with friends or family.

The fun is in the journey and not just the destination. The awesome views of sky, green fields, canals, rivers, mountains and bridges, meeting different people, trying local food experiencing local culture and practices makes you a better, knowledgeable and wiser human being. You realize how insignificant you are in front of Mother Nature and no matter how many trips you make, you always come back with some new learnings and perspectives. There is definitely more to life than you may have thought before!

Read the complete post here at TopYaps

A Letter from my Father

Since childhood whenever I am in doubt or am feeling low, I have taken refuge in Dad's letters. This is one such letter he wrote to me on 16th December, 1992.

Yes, I was thirteen years old then. My mother informed him of my adamant nature, but she forgot to look for the reasons for the sudden change. My Grandpa had expired on 31st October, 1991 and I was very close to him. That was the first death I had witnessed. Nobody knew what I went through. Nobody told me death was inevitable. Nobody told me life moves on. I blamed everyone who laughed or enjoyed life. Because I thought moving on in life without him was impossible and a sin.

It is very important to talk to your children about everything. It is necessary to make them come to terms with the realities of life. Young minds are impressionable. They're the most vulnerable. Take time to understand and educate.

This morning as I read Sheryl Sandberg's status, the first thing that came to my mind was this episode. And then again, I went back to my treasure chest. Reading these make me feel strong and secure.

This one I had to share with my nine-year old who is showing signs of getting into tens. And I felt I should share these here for anyone who might find them helpful.

‪#‎LettersFromMyDad‬ ‪#‎MyTreasureChest‬

Breathing Space

Every flower that blooms in your garden needs enough space to breathe. The more you let it breathe in fresh air the longer it stays alive and spreads fragrance and delight. 

A relation between husband and wife is one such. There's needs to be a breathing space for the relation to nurture itself and feel live. This is the 'US' time. The time you ought to have for just the two of you. Nobody else. No children, no work, no other personal or professional commitments. Just the two of you. A movie, an outing, a lunch or a candle light dinner, or simply resting on the other's lap and spending some time just talking to each other of nothing other than just the two of you. 

Many a times in many relationships, this 'US' time gets ignored because of the burden of responsibilities and other commitments. We forget to realize that all these do not matter as much as our relationship does. And if we do not give enough time to each other, our relationship will be crushed under the burden of these responsibilities, commitments and liabilities. Now many will argue with me that this is the so called 'modern mentality' that reflects such thoughts and that there have been so many relationships that have remained strong with the test of time. My question will be, is living under one roof, handling all your responsibilities successfully and pleasing all and sundry is what life is? Aren't we responsible towards each other? 

A friend I have known for years had gotten married into a joint family with parents, brother, sister-in-law, sister, all under one roof. She used to take leave from office and accompany her husband to each and every sales call that he made. She had to wait outside all alone for hours, but she was still willing to do that. Why??? Simply because she maintained that even if it is those few minutes on the bike that they travel from one appointment to the other, it is a lifetime of togetherness for her. People did say that she was crazy, but honestly having known her even before her marriage, I feel it was her effort to keep the relationship alive. 

Many of us do stick to the marriage, to the relationship, to each other...but are we happy? Are we sure that this is what both of us want?

Love as everyone says is a feeling and not a thing. There probably is no single definition for it and may be there never will. This feeling is not stagnant, it is relative. It needs your time, you presence for the love to remain alive.